This book unravels the complexities of meaning found in the world's oldest existing military treatise, whose basic tenet is to know your enemy's strengths and weaknesses and turn them against him. In examining the work step by step, Lionel Giles' 1910 translation pays particular attention to the subtleties of the Chinese characters and the interpretations offered by centuries of informed commentators. James Clavell—World War II veteran and prisoner of war and author of such bestsellers as Shogun and Tai-Pan—offers an insightful foreword to this edition, explaining that he has left intact the translation and Giles' notes, which he has "inserted according to the Chinese method, immediately after the passages to which they refer." While the classic is respected as much today for its skillful handling of human nature as for its battle stratagems, Clavell also notes that Sun Tzu's knowledge—and we would add his resounding relevance—"is vital to our survival."